A few years ago, at
the Broad Universe / Spencer Hill Press table at the very first Anthocon, this sweet young woman wandered over.
There was chemistry between the bunch of us right away and the group of us
table folk absconded with the lovely Kendra
L. Saunders for dinner, got her to join Broad Universe, and all promptly
bought copies of her first novel, Inanimate
Objects, which is a beautiful story of art and immortality in the vein
(there's a pun there...) of The Great
Gatsby. Trust me, you'll love it!
Then she wrote an
entirely different styled book, Death and
Mr. Right, which I (and the rest of my friends) also fell in love
with. For entirely different reasons. In the humorous style of Douglas Adams and
Terry Pratchett, Death and Mr. Right
is a romp through Boston and beyond with the diva-like Death (recently-made-former
agent of nightmares) as he tries to get back his job, the list of the names of
the damned that he lost (oops!), and above all, not fall in love.
As you might imagine,
things aren't going so well...
Kendra is an awesome
person, and she is kindly sharing her awesomeness on my blog with an
interview!! Why? Because Death and Mr. Right is now available for
you to love and laugh milk out your nose
over, too!
Thanks for stopping
by, Kendra!
Oh, thank you so much for having me! And I just wanted
to say- thank you so much for The Great Gatsby mention. That's one of my
favorite books.
What kind of research
went into writing Death and Mr. Right?
What is your favorite research story? What cool facts and findings didn’t make
it into the book, but you loved discovering?
While writing Death and Mr. Right, my friend Megan took me
to Boston for a full day of exploration and research! We wandered Newbury
Street and some of the popular spots, then down by the swan boats, which I
guess a lot of people think are really pretty. I found them to be extremely
depressing, haha. The most beautiful spot in Boston is the Church of Science,
across the street from the Prudential Center. We found it by accident, because
it started raining and we made a dash for cover... the reflecting pool in front
of the Church of Science is just breathtaking, though, even in the rain. You feel
like you've teleported to Italy or something. If Death and Mr. Right becomes a
huge cult hit, I want to offer tours of the major locations in the book, and
that would be the most important one. I took a lot of pictures of it, which can
be found on my facebook page!
Also, during my research, I found
out that Pandora's "Box" was actually a jar! That was a cool fact
that I had no idea about previously.
You also have a
passion for fashion, which definitely seems to find its way into your
work. As the person who is constantly getting notes from her critique
group that she adds too much horsey stuff--but generally isn't into fashion at
all--I'm curious how you are able to let in just enough of your passion into
your writing without overwhelming--and while making it interesting for those of
us who normally don't think about fashion? :)
The newest book, The Unlove Spell, has maybe the most of it,
because Marling lives in New York City, her friend Kyran is a fashion label
obsessed metrosexual and Viktor Arson is a total babe, so we usually hear about
what he's wearing. In one part, Kyran says something about standing outside of
an Alexander McQueen store and feeling too afraid to walk inside, lest he burst
into flames of unworthiness. So there was lots of designer label talk in that
one.
I have had the extraordinary privilege to meet a lot of designers that I really
admire and have conversations with them in interviews or just while hanging
out, and have learned so much. For my freelance work, I talk a lot about
fashion (in interviews and articles) and I've been an InStyle subscriber for
ten years! So it's very possible that my projects in the future will have more
and more of a fashion theme, but generally I try to describe in humorous ways,
usually, or with a very light hand. That being said, I recently wrote a short
story inspired by one of Zac Posen's photos on instagram, about a designer, and
I've been inspired for several pieces by fashion, models, and designers. Music
and fashion are my greatest inspirations!
What is your favorite
part of being a writer? Of the whole writing and publishing
process? What do you think has been your greatest lesson in the journey
thus far?
Definitely for me, writing is a way of processing things
that have happened to me. Maybe someone was really cruel and I couldn't react
at the time (I'm a slow reactor and very bad at confrontation), so I process it
in fiction. Maybe I met a stranger who was intriguing but disappeared from the
fabric of my life... I can bring them to life in fiction. Maybe someone is
dancing around the edges of my life... I can get to know them through fiction.
Maybe there's a place I've always wanted to visit (England, Austria, etc)...
fiction is a transportation device. And if I miss a place, a person, a feeling,
I can resurrect it in writing. Truly, writing is the best and cheapest way to
live a thousand lives.
Also, getting to travel in the
name of research and promotion is great. I've had wanderlust all my life and
this is the perfect job to allow for that.
What does your
writing space look like? What do you need to have around you while writing or
editing?
My writing space changes from day
to day but my favorite place to write is at the Concord, NH Starbucks. I've
written most of THREE novels there (and even dedicated Death and Mr. Right to
them!) I like to have a latte (no sugar) and a cup of water at the table with
me. My doctor made me promise to cut back on caffeine, but the smell of
espresso is just magical! I have to have headphones so I can retreat into my
mental writing cave. Spotify has become my best friend... it's an online music
database that allows you to listen to whole albums or playlists that you
create, for free. It's great because the artists don't lose money and you don't
have to pay to listen to new albums. I have a playlist for every major project
I'm working on, as well as a "soothing" one, a "love" one,
a "girl power" one and lots of others! Plus with spotify, you can
receive suggestions from other spotify users. Fabio Costa (Project Runway
contestant and co-owner of NotEqual) is one of my favorite people to get
suggestions from. He has great taste in music and we can nerd out over indie
albums together. Feel free to find my playlists and check them out, and be sure
to check his out too!
If I'm home, I like to sit in my
room surrounded by my stuffed animals. Because I'm a grown up.
What is one thing
that most people don't realize about you?
Well, most people don't realize I
have an embarrassingly extensive knowledge of Sting's discography. Not even a
joke! I have all of his albums up until the lute one, and even some singles.
And I have "Soul Cages" on vinyl, thanks to my friend Isaac. I've
also seen a couple of his movies- The Bride (which I told the Nostalgia Critic
he should review) and Brimstone and Treacle. And yes, I own his books too. He's
been a major creative influence on my writing and life. The lyrics from
"Soul Cages" are just surreal masterpieces to me. He's a master
storyteller.
Also, Andrew Bird wore the scarf I
made for him in a music video with Margaret Cho. Look it up! So cool!
What has been your
favorite adventure during your writing career?
Oh, there have been so many of them! But my greatest was
definitely going to New York City in May of this year for BEA, staying at the
hip Jane Hotel with my sister, getting dressed up in my gorgeous Dmitry
Sholokhov dress and high heels, attending a fancy breakfast as a guest author,
taking a taxi to the Javit's Center, signing review copies of Death and Mr.
Right to tons of strangers and familiar faces alike, and Dmitry joining me at
the event as my guest. It was amazing! We chatted and caught up a little after
he arrived and I met his lovely friend Anastasiya, and then we posed behind the
Spencer Hill table and suddenly there was a whole row of people standing in
front of us with cameras. I've never seen so many cameras in my life! It was a
surreal experience. Even Dmitry commented that it was a lot of camera flashes.
I felt like a princess or something! Later that evening, my sister and three of
my best girlfriends got together with me back at the Jane Hotel for drinks and
conversation, and then my dear friend Megan and I took a late-night walk along
the waterfront. To have so many wonderful people with me for that event was a
beautiful experience. And Dmitry has been such an inspiration for me, both as
an artist with a lot of ambition and big dreams and good sense of humor, and
also because he was the muse for Viktor Arson in "The Unlove Spell."
It was the most magical day of my life! (If you don't know about his work, you
should look him up on twitter and instagram, both of which are @dmitrysholokhov
)
Now that we have had a taste of your awesomeness, what are the deets
about your book so we can all buy it? (ISBN, where to buy it, etc.)
Death and Mr. Right drops October 1st. It will be for
sale in most Barnes & Noble stores, on
amazon and worldwide at
bookdepository.com. There are many things you can do to
make this funky little book into an indie success. You can call or visit your
local bookstore and ask them to order a copy of the book, you can tweet me (
@kendrybird ) with the hashtag #deathandmrright , you can take a picture of
yourself with the book and tweet it or instagram it with the #deathandmrright
tag... I'm going to feature the pictures on my site, along with a link of your
choice, if you'd like. So hit me up!
You've got a very active life in social media, and you promote your
work in a lot of untraditional ways. What advice can you offer other
authors who are looking to help promote their books and are trying to get
online more?
Choose two social media platforms that you really like
and concentrate on those. Some people try to do it all- facebook, twitter,
instagram, blog, pinterest, tumblr, whatever... it gets to be a burden,
especially if you're new to it. I suggest you use two that you really like, and
use one more for personal contacts and one more for 'fans.' Facebook is great
for personal contacts and twitter is great for fans. With facebook, you have
more of a human connection, but you also have the gatekeeper of adding people
as your 'friend.' With twitter, you speak and anyone in the world can listen.
Post about what makes your life unique. Fans and followers want to see things
they can't see in their own lives, like places you've traveled, cool people
you've met or whatever else. Also, don't be afraid to tweet people you admire.
Everyone is so connected now, and there's comfort in that, even for someone 'on
top.' I've interacted with Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Ross, Tom Hiddleston and many
other of my personal heroes on twitter. So don't be afraid to try talking to
one of your heroes!
Speaking of your active online life, how can fans (un-creeper-like)
stalk you to find out what you're up to and what else they can possibly give
you money for? :)
I LOVE to hear from everyone! My twitter handle is
@kendrybird and I'm on instagram @kendralsaunders and update my website
regularly www.kendralsaunders.com In addition, the radio interviews I do go up
on my youtube channel after they air. I've interviewed Dmitry Sholokhov,
Michelle Lesniak Franklin, Fabio Costa, Melissa Fleis, Miranda Levy.. you can
hear those on my youtube channel! http://www.youtube.com/KendraLSaunders I also
upload video journals there from my travels. Recent ones include my trip to NYC
for Death and Mr. Right's signing at BEA, and my adventures at NYFW!
What are you working
on now, and what other projects can we look for from you in the near future?
I've recently finished writing The Unlove Spell, which is
probably my favorite thing I've ever written. It's about a young witch named
Marling, who lives in New York City and isn't very good at magic. She tries to
put an unlove spell on her former lover, sexy Russian writer Viktor Arson, to
keep him from falling in love with anyone else, but she accidentally puts it on
herself instead. The story begins five years later, when their paths cross
again and she finds out Viktor's family are actually fae royalty. The fae and
witches have a long, ugly history, and Marling has to decide... does she really
love him, or is that just the unlove spell she placed on herself?
It's a comedy and it's fun and it's set in New York City. It's currently with
my very favorite agent, so my fingers are crossed!
I'm also mostly finished with a poetry and short story collection about these
two people who are never quite right for each other, but they keep crossing
paths in different lives and realities. It's really melancholy and I'm excited
about the idea of sharing it with the world!
Once again, thank you
so much for stopping by my blog, Kendra!
It's always a blast to hang out with you!
Thank you so much, Trish! You're amazing, and I have so much
respect and love for you!
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